LaPierre: 'Beef up' gun penalties for traffickers

By Kevin Cirilli

03/24/13 11:17 AM EDT

National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre said Sunday that he'd support gun reform legislation that would "beef up the penalties" on straw purchases of firearms and illegal gun trafficking, as well as getting records of mentally ill into the national background checks system.

"We are working on a bill right now that will, hopefully, at least get the records of those adjudicated, the mentally incompetent and dangerous into the check system that applies on dealers," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"Most of the states still do not even do that. We need to see if we can get that done. We're looking to get better enforcement at the federal gun laws. We're looking at laws that beef up the penalties on straw purchases and illegal trafficking, which we want prosecuted."

"I hope we end up signing something that updates the system and gets those mentally incompetent and adjudicated into the system. We force the administration somehow to enforce the federal gun laws," LaPierre said. "I know they don't want to do it but they ought to do it. It's their responsibility."

"That would make people safe," he said. "If you're a drug dealer, a gang member, a [felon] -- and you touch a gun, it's a 100 percent certainty that you're going to be prosecuted and taken off the street. That ought to start tomorrow morning it they won't do it unless the national media gets on the administration and calls them out for their incredible lack of enforcement on these laws."